Response policing in the MPS

Report: 8
Date: 12 June 2008
By: the AC Territorial Policing on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

This report:

• Provides an update on the management of response demand since the completion of the C3i Programme that closed in November 2007.
• Outlines measures in place to monitor performance

A. Recommendation

That

1. Members note the contents of this update; and
2. Members agree the way forward as an appropriate one for the MPS.

B. Supporting information

1. On 16 January 2007 at agenda item 12, the Planning, Performance and Review Committee (PPRC) agreed the closure of the Demand Management Best Value Review (DMBVR). At that time the 21st Borough Operational Command Unit (BOCU), Merton, had just moved its dispatching function into Lambeth Central Communications Command (CCC). The remaining eleven moves were still being managed. All 32 BOCUs now have dispatching delivered by CCC from Bow, Hendon or Lambeth. The C3i programme itself was formally completed in November 2007.

2. During its formative stages line managerial responsibility for CCC rested with the C3i programme. Post closure, responsibility for CCC initially passed to Central Operations, then Operational Services and following the recent re-configuration of business in April 2008, now sits in Territorial Policing where it is a key component of the new ‘Response, Patrol and Citizen’s’ Contract portfolio.

3. Whilst the three CCC centres were being constructed much of the BOCU based business change activity was managed by the TP Modernising Operations team. In particular, the team had responsibility for delivering an Integrated Borough Operations room in each BOCU. The IBOs provide a number of complimentary functions alongside CCC, including fast-time intelligence to officers and resourcing information to CCC.

4. In recognition of the change in emphasis that followed the completion of the C3i programme the Modernising Operations OCU has since been superseded by the creation of a new TP Patrol OCU. The primary focus of this unit is to support patrolling officers in the new environment and key complementary work streams include the development of the ‘effective patrol’ framework and the greater emphasis being placed on active patrol supervision within Borough commands.

5. In process terms the C3i programme centralised the call handling and dispatch functions that had hitherto been delivered at borough level. The great advantage of the new business model, and which has now been complemented by the new configuration, is that call receipt; dispatch and response are all now within one portfolio. The end-to-end process that is now in place means that:

• All calls from the public (except direct dial) are answered in CCC;
• Calls requiring police attendance are passed to CCC dispatch as a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) message;
• That message also goes to the IBO who commence intelligence research on a prioritised basis;
• CCC operators deploy the closest & most appropriate resource to the call: this will not necessarily be a unit from the same BOCU;
• Intelligence updates are added by the IBO and passed to the attending unit;
• The attending unit informs CCC of their arrival at scene via a Mobile Data Terminal (MDT);
• Once the unit has dealt with the call they update CCC via MDT and change their status to available or explain why they are otherwise committed.
• CCC complete all information on the CAD message show it as complete, removing it from the active message list;
• If CCC cannot complete the message due to an outstanding matter not requiring a deployment, eg awaiting a crime reference, they will pass it to the BOCU IBO to result and remove it from any deployment list;
• The message will be moved to storage by the IBO when completed.

6. From the outset it was acknowledged that large business change programmes can adversely impact performance and despite strenuous efforts to minimise the impact of that change this was also the case for the C3i programme. In recognition of this, the decision was taken not to formally adopt the 12-minute target for ‘I’ call in the 07-08 performance year.

7. The data covering both immediate (I) and soonest (S) calls for the last two years are presented at appendix 2. The number of calls reached within 12 and 60 minutes respectively is still below the levels achieved in 2004, but the recent trend is strongly upwards: since April 2008 average ‘I’ call performance has improved by over two minutes and ‘S’ call response has improved by almost an hour.

8. The current financial year has seen the adoption of specific targets by each borough aimed at improving response times, albeit is recognised that the 12 minute standard is beyond the reach of most boroughs in one year. In particular, considerable emphasis has been placed on improving the efficiency in how key processes are managed and it has been stressed that this is not about driving faster. It is, however, clear that the adoption of these targets has been a key driver in the recent improvement in performance.

9. The bespoke targets that were set in consultation with each BOCU are attached at appendix 1 and it can be seen that the aggregate figure shows the MPS is ahead of its target and that notable gains have been achieved in a short time. In addition to the ‘I’ call measures the MPS also now measures ‘S’ call performance and has the ability to evaluate compliance with key processes such as MDT usage, which used correctly frees up air time for dispatch. MDT also allows officers to be more self sufficient as the need for repetition of call details is negated by the call being copied to the screen in the vehicle while time of arrival or availability to take another call can be communicated silently using MDT.

10. The other advantage of MDT, that will shortly be complemented by the introduction of Automatic Person Location System (APLS) technology is that it allows CCC to maintain an overview of what resources are available to deploy the nearest unit to an emergency call where appropriate, even if this is from another BOCU, an option that was not available under the pre C3i arrangements.

11. The remaining challenge now facing us is to firmly embed the cultural and functional change we have introduced so that it becomes the new business as usual and in particular, to ensure that the dispatch function insofar as it relates to the split of responsibility between staff in CCC, IBOs and on patrol is managed effectively. This is the subject of ongoing development activity with CCC and at BOCU level

12. TP has placed an emphasis upon ensuring BOCUs were and are supported during both the roll-out and post C3i programme phases. Under the banner of 'Responding Safely Together', teams from TP Patrol and CCC are now working to show BOCUs how best to deploy the new technologies and work with colleagues who are no longer located locally. Many of the frustrations experienced have been identified and addressed and in particular, a corporate de-brief was recently undertaken to capture all of the learning and the data from this is currently being analysed to identify ways of improving teamworking and resolving issues.

13. Post C3i a new governance structure has been created to focus on service delivery at strategic, management and functional levels. Key to this structure is ensuring that benefit delivery is tracked and providing an escalation path, where necessary, to resolve issues.

14. In addition to quantitative improvements some of the qualitative benefits of the new business model are also drawing support from officers, particularly the fast-time intelligence support that is now provided to officers attending incidents. This has improved officer safety and will be further enhanced with the arrival of previously mentioned APLS later this year. In some areas concerns still exists in relation to the alignment of the CCC based ‘dispatch’ and BOCU ‘response’ functions and this is the subject of an ongoing review. In the short-term a number of changes such as the planned for introduction of pod working that will see CCC pods teams aligned to boroughs and a greater emphasis on incident management by CCC supervisors will resolve many of the issues and help to build confidence where it is needed.

15. CCC is committed to scrutinising and improving its service delivery. The three centres have succeeding in operating consistently as a 'virtual one' and have the capability to provide fallback cover to each other in the event that a centre is taken out of service for any reason. The communications digest has also developed into an excellent source of consistent information for call handlers.

16. CCC is now operating at the numbers intended and proposed by the C3i programme and is now complemented by the role performed by the IBOs, the development of which fell outside the final C3i project plan. Further work is being undertaken to review the implementation of both programmes, to develop the new ways of working and to make recommendations to improve performance and efficiency.

17. As a result people who previously telephoned local Borough telephone numbers are now routed tone of the CCC centres where their call is responded to in timely fashion. Appendix three shows the increase in call volumes while call handling times

18. In answering 999 calls there was an improvement in 2007/08 overall service for 999 calls (90% within 10 seconds). It should be noted that this was against an increase in their volume by 380,000 or 7%.

19. Greater improvement came in respect of non emergency calls (90%

within 30 seconds) where there was an increase in the service level achieved of over 5%. Another point of note is that as a result of transition completing in September 2007 CCC answered nearly one million more non emergency calls within the 3 centres than the previous year.

20. These latter two improvements have together led to an improvement in public satisfaction levels in respect of SPI 1a: Satisfaction with ease of contact - MPS Wide.

Report author: Pat Shiel, Band A. Patrol OCU

List of Abbreviations:

APLS

Automatic Person Location System

BOCU

Borough Operational Command Unit

C3i

Command, Control, Communication and Information Programme

CAD

Computer Aided Dispatch

CCC

Central Communications Command

DMBVR

Demand Management Best Value Review

IBO

Integrated Borough Operations

MDT

Mobile Data Terminal

MPS

Metropolitan Police Service

OCU

Operational Command Unit

PPRC

Planning, Performance and Review Committee

C. Race and equality impact

This work impacts all of the communities in London and will ensure an intelligence led response to calls to police from the people of London.

D. Financial implications

The C3i programme and the creation of IBOs, including the staffing requirements has already largely been budgeted for. The main ongoing financial issues are centred on the delivery of certain IT functions, that were catered for in the original programme and for which budgetary provision has been made, but have not yet been realised. These include the upgrade to MDT and the introduction of the automatic person location system (APLS) but budgets have already been identified for these areas.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author(s): Pat Shiel, Band A. Patrol OCU, MPS

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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